Comey to Congress: President Trump told him 'I need loyalty'

Comey to Congress: President Trump told him 'I need loyalty'

Christy Curtis
|
09 June, 2017, 02:22

Fired FBI Director James Comey's gripping written account of his private encounters with Donald Trump since January reads like a movie script, giving Americans a rare fly-on-the-wall view as the president and the FBI director parry like two alpha males warily circling each other.

Comey entered the overflowing Capitol Hill hearing room and took his seat at the witness table, alone, as the session got underway.

Comey told the F.B.I. leadership team about Trump's outrageously improper request, but he did something more, too.

"FBI directors are supposed to be independent", Ryan said of the Trump-Comey interactions.

Things get stranger from there, when Trump tells Comey: "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty". "It's what did they do, how did they do it, how do we prevent it from happening again?"

A day before Comey's much-anticipated testimony before the Senate intelligence committee, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director's prepared remarks were officially released, bringing into public view new details in the Trump-Comey saga.

His account of demands for loyalty from the president, and of requests to end an investigation into an embattled adviser, are likely to sharpen allegations that Trump improperly sought to influence the FBI-led probe. He says Trump also volunteered that "he had nothing to do with Russian Federation, had not been involved with hookers in Russian Federation, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia" - referencing an unverified intelligence dossier detailing compromising information Moscow had allegedly collected on Trump. But Trump later said he was thinking of "this Russian Federation thing" when he fired Comey and would have dismissed him without the Justice Department's input.

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- Comey explains how an FBI counter-intelligence investigation differs from a criminal one. "We simply looked at each other in silence". I hope you can let this go.' I replied only that "he is a good guy.' ..." "It is possible we understood the phrase 'honest loyalty" differently".

OVAL OFFICE, Feb. 14: "Let this go".

For the record, I don't think he was kidding.

The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, "He is a good guy and has been through a lot". During an Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday, senators pressed Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, and Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency, about their contacts with Trump on the issue; they refused to answer. He said he "explained" to Trump "why it was so important that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice be independent of the White House". I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. "I did not say I would 'let this go".

Sen. Chris Coons of DE says, "I think we have to be careful about making legal conclusions" and argues that lawmakers should not be "getting in the way" of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller (MUHL'-ur).

"Comey said he was asked to "lift the cloud": "(Trump) said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia.

Trump: "That's what I want, honest loyalty". "He agreed, but then re-emphasized the problems this was causing him".

Comey gets a midday phone call from now-President Trump inviting him to dinner at the White House that night. To Comey, it's a not-so-veiled request that the FBI drop any investigation of Flynn regarding false statements about his contact with the Russians. However, Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said that while Trump's dealings with Comey were inappropriate, "We do not indict people for being boorish or clueless". He also revealed the words that Trump whispered in his ear, when the President summoned him across the room on camera at a reception at the White House shortly after the inauguration.

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